[WP] Humanity finally reaches the edge of the solar system only to encounter an impassible barrier and a warning not to try and breach it. But is it there to keep us in or to keep something else out?

Eryon always felt that his life rang a bit like bad sci-fi comedy. Starting with his name, which he shared with a remarkably uninteresting extinct crustaceous from the Late Jurrasic period, all the way through things like his wife's open contempt for what she described as 'your odd quirks, Eryon,' referring to every single aspect of his personality. The only thing Eryon liked about his life was the beyond. Space. Out of chance, the universe had made him absolutely ordinary in every aspect but one: Eryon had an amazing talent for understanding the physics and engineering of water and pressure in space. Why it was so, he never knew, but complicated equations related to the movement of pressurized liquids in zero gravity solved themselves inside his head as if by magic, almost. This skill was the main selling point in his application to work for Nasa. Eryon had always dreamed of becoming an astronaut and going as far away into space as he could – more so than ever after he married his wife – and he didn't care how he did it. So, when Nasa realized that his savant-level of knowledge regarding water and pressure in space could be put to use on their new disposal removal system, they offered Eryon a job on the next mission as a space plumber. Eryon took the job. The team mission was to cross the Oort cloud, analyzing date from the asteroids for two years, then exit the limits of the solar system and return. The exiting part was more of a 'yes we can' thing than of real scientific importance, but everyone was really excited about it. The spaceship took off on December 12, 2027. Eryon slept during takeoff. On December 17th, Eryon's wife realized he was no longer living in the house. On December 18th, she filed for divorce.

"All right, guys, two minutes!" Commandant Jones looked back and allowed himself a rare smile. The team was all gathered around the front window, watching the stars drift by slowly in front of them. "Five minutes and we'll be out of the solar system!" Eryon watched the team from behind, distracted with releasing and grabbing a rubber ball repeatedly. "Hey, Eryon!" Matt yelled, noticing him. "Come on! It's about to happen!" "I'm ok here, Matt." "Oh, don't be a downer, Eryon," Kathy added. "This is huge!" "It's the first time in history that mankind will leave the solar system, Eryon, and you're a part of it. Come join us." "Thirty seconds!" "I'm ok guys, really." "Come on!" "Twenty!" "It's not like nothing's going to happen, guys. We're just going to cross it and get a feeling of ecstasy based on nothing, because the limits of the solar system are a human creation that has no actual significance in a cosmic sense. It's like new year's eve." "Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!" "Eryon, come on!" "It's arbitrary. It really doesn't matter. We're gonna cross it and nothing's going to happen." "Three! Two! One!" "Sir, something's happening." Matt said it, but Eryon had noticed it before already. The second the commandant yelled 'one', the ship's floor started shaking heavily. Then the whole ship rattled violently and everyone was thrown on the floor. Eryon looked up. Through the window, he noticed the nose of the ship was engraved into a sort of translucent wall, like if the ship had collided against a mirror or a soap bubble. He approached the window, slow step by slow step. Creck. A rip appeared on the translucent wall, like thin ice breaking under heavy weight. Eryon frowned, his nose almost touching the front window of the ship. Creck. The commandant stopped by his side, a look in his face like someone had just asked him to solve a fifty side Rubik's cube using only his penis. "What the fuck…" Creck. Creck. Creck. Creck. The rips and lines on the wall appeared one after the other after the other. A piece fell, revealing a darkness darker than bad analogies on the other side. Eryon turned left and right, studying the expression of his ship mates. He had been a retracted and shy man all his life, but he felt like this was a good moment to break character and take initiative. "Does anyone know," he started, calmy, "what on God's mother's tit is going on right now?" No one answered. Another piece of the wall fell, and then another, and then another. And then the whole wall came down and a deafening silence took over. Infinite darkness lay ahead of the ship, no stars. "I'm going to ask again," Eryon tried. "Does anyone know what on God's –" With a quick and low suction sound, the ship was pulled into the blackness and Eryon passed out.

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